"Cipla is in my blood," says Samina Hamied, executive vice chairperson, and granddaughter of Khwaja Abdul Hamied who founded Chemical, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Laboratories (Cipla) in 1935. Transitioning to pharmaceuticals from a cosy job at Goldman Sachs was, however, no cakewalk. "The first couple of years were learning to lay the road, build a car, put the tires and learn to drive at the same time," she recalls. "It is only in the last three years that things have settled." Last year, Cipla put together a portfolio for Covid management, from diagnostics kits to medicines. Strategic partnerships and acquisitions helped the company record a profit of '2,468 crore in FY21, against '1,547 crore in FY20. Hamied was also among the six Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance [IPA] CEOs who worked with ICMR, using global best practices and recommendations of WHO, and came up with standard operating procedures [SOPs] for the industry. — Gina Krishnan